VIDEO: Free The Tone SOV-2 and MS SOV Special A/B demo

Boutique overdrive pedals compared

We took delivery of one of the first production Free The Tone Matt Schofield Signature pedals, the MS SOV Special (£345). So, how does this new version differ from his original model?

"The original SOV-2 has a true bypass switching system, but Matt wanted a very warm and natural input buffer circuit, so he asked me to do that," explains Free The Tone mainman Yukihiro Hayashi. "I realised that with the effect on and off, the tone position should be the same, which is what I learned with the HTS ['Holistic Tonal Solution' ] circuit. So, Matt's pedal has the HTS circuit, firstly to do the input job that he wanted, but also so that the output impedance is almost exactly the same with the pedal on and off, so that the tone position remains the same."

Check out our sound samples, which compare the two pedals; the Free The Tone SOV-2 and the all-new MS SOV Special.